I didn't open the door last night.
I heard her knock.
Heard her voice — soft, syrupy, patient.
"Eli... let me in."
And then firmer.
"I'm not going to ask again."
But I stayed silent.
Locked the door. Plugged in my earbuds.
Pretended I had a choice.
---
This morning?
She didn't speak to me.
Not a word on the ride to school. Not a glance in the hall.
No teasing, no smirking, no games.
And that should've felt like relief.
But it didn't.
It felt like a storm building.
One I'd made.
---
At lunch, she sat alone.
Table in the corner. Hood up. Eyes down.
I walked past her — slow, cautious — and then it happened:
The air shifted.
Like static before a lightning strike.
My tray flew out of my hands — smashed against the lockers.
People gasped. I staggered back.
And across the room?
Lila still hadn't moved.
---
I caught up with her after final period.
Cornered her near the stairwell. Empty hallway. Fluorescent lights flickering overhead.
"Lila."
No response.
"Look, about last night—"
She raised her eyes.
And everything changed.
They weren't red. They weren't glowing.
But they were ancient.
Bottomless.
Like staring into a furnace through glass.
"You locked me out," she said, voice flat.
"I needed space."
"You don't get space."
She stepped toward me — and in a blink she was gone.
Then behind me.
Whispering.
"You're mine."
I turned. She wasn't there.
Then—suddenly—she was in front of me again.
A blur of motion. Faster than anything human.
Her fingers gripped my shirt, slammed me into the wall with bone-rattling force.
But no one saw.
No one was around.
No one ever is when she wants it that way.
"Do you know what I am, Eli?"
"A succubus—"
"Wrong."
Her hand rose.
I felt pressure wrap around my wrists — invisible. Like vines made of thought. She lifted me an inch off the ground without touching me.
"I'm a queen of Hell," she hissed. "Not some low-tier lust demon. I don't seduce. I own."
My breath caught.
"And yet…" she added, tone softening. "I wanted you to want me.
I gave you patience. Restraint.
I touched you when you weren't ready.
I waited when I could've taken."
She let me go.
I dropped to my knees.
"But if you shut me out again," she whispered, "I won't wait. I'll come through the walls. Through your dreams. I'll crawl into your bed and make you mine from the inside out."
I looked up at her, heart hammering.
She knelt.
"I'm trying to be gentle, Eli.
But don't make me show you what happens when I stop."
And just like that — she vanished.
No footsteps. No door.
Gone.
---
I sat there shaking.
Sweating.
Every hair on my body standing on end.
And one horrifying truth settled deep in my chest:
She could kill me.
She could destroy everything.
But for some reason…
She wants me instead.